Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books with Author Andrew Jalbert

Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books is a continuing series to help authors learn how to promote their books. If you would like to be a guest blogger for our book promotion and publicity series, click here.

Our guest blogger for today is Andrew Jalbert, author of WEST ACROSS THE BOARD.

As far as I’m concerned, marketing your book can be just as much work as writing it. Because I chose a POD publisher, much of the marketing fell on my shoulders and I can distinctly remember opening up the box with my author copies and thinking, “now what?”

I began marketing my book the way many authors (who don’t have a publicist backing them) probably do: I made a list of everyone I know and sent out emails with information about the book including a purchase link. While this sounds like a pretty unambitious first step, it proved to be a good start. Many of the people I contacted purchased the book and recommended it to others. As word got out that a local author had written a novel I began getting requests to attend book clubs and was even invited to be a guest on a radio show. My local focus only resulted in the sale of a couple hundred books, but I think is was necessary and when my next book goes to press I’ll start marketing the same way.

With an eye on online sales, I also set up pages in popular networking sites such as MySpace and sites that catered to book readers and authors. This too proved successful. By networking with other authors, reviewers and people who had an interest in my novel’s setting (the book takes place in the Florida Keys) I was able to get the word out and ultimately sell more books. My website, www.jalbertproductons.com already had a fair amount of traffic from people viewing and purchasing my photography so I simply rebuilt it to include the book as well. Because my photography focuses on marine and tropical subjects (I’ve been a regular contributor to travel and scuba diving magazines for years) I have a pretty good idea of the kind of interests the site visitors have. If they’re willing to purchase photography from the tropics, they’d most likely be interested in a novel set in the same environments.

Reviews are essential. I sent copies out to magazines, newspapers, and online reviewers and I was very pleased with the results. Every time I received a good review I asked if they would be kind enough to post it on Amazon and many of them did. While I was busy getting more information on the Amazon’s sale page I also made sure to include features such as “Search Inside.”

Because my book has a very specific setting (the Florida Keys- Key West in particular) I began targeting dealers and small shops in the island chain. I was surprised to find that even stores that didn’t typically carry fiction ordered copies simply because the story took place locally. In fact, I just completed an order to a scuba shop in Key Largo. This brings me to one of the lessons I’ve learned about marketing. I realize it’s usually first on the list in the “how to sell your book” manuals, but knowing your audience is essential. If your book takes place in Colorado, go after stores and readers there. People seem to have an incredible interest in reading a novel that takes place in a setting in which they’re familiar.

Define the people who would want to read your book, get it reviewed and get the word out any way you can. Sometimes even the smallest marketing effort can produce results.

Andrew Jalbert is the author of the historical fiction, WEST ACROSS THE BOARD.  You can visit his website at www.jalbertproductions.com.